Life Is Short
by Person3846
Summary: read and find out
1. Part One

LIFE IS SHORT  
  
  
  
Cut to a rather pink looking room  
  
In the room you see a little girl about 12-13 years old with orange hair sleeping in a bed with her back facing the camera. She is wearing a blue night gown with pink frills and is curled up in white bed sheets. There is a night stand with an empty glass sitting on it, probably left over from when she had a glass of water the night before. Beside the cup there is a square, black, alarm clock which says on it 7:59, which means the alram is going to go off in seconds.  
  
Close up of the girl sleeping   
  
The girl rolls over on her side and you can see spiky bangs hanging in her face. Her alarm goes off with an ear splitting beeping sound. The clock startles her and she sits bolt upright in her bed. She pushes the bangs out of her face and we can now safely say that she has only one eye. Her skin is a peach color with a few freckles scattered on the bridge of her nose. Messy, bright, orange hair frames her face.   
  
The girl gets out of bed and yawns. With her eye still closed she stumbles over to her dresser and sits down on the little, white, stool which was next to it. She grabs a blue comb off her dresser and, with her eye still closed, starts to brush her messy hair. An automatic door opens.  
  
Enter Leela  
  
Leela has gotten older. Her hair has grown a fainter shade of purple and is now done up in a bun instead of a pony tail. She has gained weight. The cyclops added at least 1 to 2 dress sizes to her clothes and is wearing her usual uniform. She wordlessly walks over to the girl and taps her on the shoulder a few times to get her attention. Once the girl opens her eye and looks up at her she starts to talk, "Good morning, Sara. I have breakfast on the table." Sara stands up next to her mom and hugs her.   
  
"You're gonna be here today?" Sara asks excitedly. Leela looks down at her and frowns a sort of a frown which is filled with both sadness and sympathy for her daughter.   
  
"No,"The cyclops says to her daughter breaking the hug, "I have work today. Ever since Planet Express got closed down I've had to work all day everyday to make ends meet. You'll have to stay with your dad or Bender if they're here." Sara stares at her and then slouches. She sits back down on the stool and starts to comb her hair, still slouching. Leela turns to walk out of her room and Sara mumbles something.  
  
"That's what you always say."  
  
Cut to The Frys' kitchen  
  
Leela and Fry had been married for fifteen years. Due to their lack of money the have been forced to live with Bender in his "closet" which is the biggest part of his apartment.   
  
Leela walks over to a square, wooden, table and sits down in one of the four chairs. There is a heaping plate of pancakes sitting on a platter in the center. Leela grabs a fork which is sitting on the plate and piles three pancakes onto her dish that she had sat on the table before going to check on Sara. She cuts the hotcakes into little, bite size, pieces with the metal fork and starts to shove the pieces into her mouth. She hears robot feet and human feet hitting the floor. Leela turns around in her chair just in time to see Fry and Bender walking into the kitchen. Fry is in his usual clothes, a white tee shirt, red jacket, blue jeans which hide his ankles, and black shoes. His hair has changed to a light orange color and he too has put some weight on. There is now an extra spike of hair sticking up in the back of his head instead on the usual two. Bender hasn't changed.  
  
Leela stands up and walks over to Fry. She gives him a little peck on the cheek before grabbing her green coat which is hanging on a metal coat hook on the wall. Once she gets her jacket on she turns to Fry and Bender and says, "You guys take good care of Sara while I'm gone. Please, please, please don't do anything stupid that will endanger you and when Sara gets up get her out the door right away. I almost forgot that she has school today." She looks at the two for a moment before walking out of the kitchen, her foot steps growing fainter and fainter with each step. Bender looks at Fry. He gives a short salute.  
  
"Aye, aye, Captain Leela." He says. He laughs hard and then stops. There was someone hugging him. He looks down to see Sara, her orange hair up in pigtails with two spikey bangs on either side of her face, with her arms wrapped around his metal body. She has on a white tee shirt and blue jeans and a pair of her mom's old boots on. "Oh, it's Fleshy. What do you want?" Sara stops hugging him and looks up at his cross looking face.  
  
"I just wanted to say good morning, Bender." She explains. Bender consentrates his attention to the freckles on her nose.   
  
"Well," Bender protests, "next time why don't you just say..." He presses a button inside his chest cabinet which makes him sound exactly like Sara, "Good morning everyone, especially you Bender, the greatest robot who ever lived!" He presses the button again and his voice returns to normal.  
  
Sara frowns at Bender and looks at her dad. Fry stares at Sara for a moment and then snaps back to reality. "Sara, your mom told me to send you to school early. She doesn't like you late, I think." With that Sara grabs her mother's old fate assignment officer's jacket off the same hook her mom took her coat off from and hurried out of the kitchen. She came running back and stopping at her dad and his friend.  
  
"Can I have some lunch money?" She asks. Fry searches his pockets and pulls them inside out. Sara frowns. Her mother was right, they really do need money. "It's ok, dad. That's why mom has to work twenty-four seven." She turns around and walks slowly out of the kitchen and out of their apartment, her boots pounding the ground as she walks. Fry looks sad. He walks over to the table to finish off Leela's breakfast.  
  
Cut to the outside of Leela's work  
  
Leela works at a grocery store called Jay's. She's a cashier and makes less than minimum wage, barely enough to feed her, Fry, and Sara and not even enough to pay for most of the family's bills. They are in debt, big time. That's why Sara has to wear her parents' old clothes.   
  
Leela sighs and walks inside the store. She hangs up her jacket on a coat hook inside and replaces it with a green apron that has an upper case J on the front of it. She clocks in and walks up the five flights of stairs to her boss's office.   
  
Cut to Leela's Boss's office  
  
The office is big. It has a desk in the middle of it with a comfortable chair in back of it and three, hard, wooden chairs in the front for "visitors" to sit down in. On his desk is a stack of paper, a plastic cup full of pens and pencils, a sharpener, and at least an inch away from the edge of the front of his desk sits a gold plate with his name carved into in, Jason "Jay" Spieler. His chair is turned backwards as if he is just staring blankly at his wall. An automatic door opens and Leela walks into Mr. Spieler's office. "Mr. Spieler I was wondering which register you wanted me at today." Mr. Spieler turns his chair around to reveal himself. He is about the same age as Leela is, around 40 years of age, and has black, shiny, hair which is pushed back on his head. He has thick, black, bushy, eyebrows, and his ears are as big as elf's ears but not as pointy. Jay looks at Leela like he has never seen her before. Actually, he rarely ever sees any of his employees. But Leela visits way more than any other employee. She tries to set aside days like Christmas and Thanksgiving to have off so she can spend time with her family, especially Sara. But those days never come.   
  
Mr. Spieler opens his mouth to speak but doesn't. Instead stands up, walks over to Leela, and pushes her out the door. The door closes in Leela's face and Mr. Spieler walks sleepishly back to his chair. He opens a drawer in his desk and pulls out a little plastic giraffe and a little plastic lion. He pretends to play safari with the two animals.  
  
Cut to the fifth stair case  
  
Leela is sitting on the stairs letting her head rest in her hands. She sighs and says angrily, "I hate Jay Spieler!" She stands up. "You know what,"She resumes, "screw Jason Spieler! I'm going home to my family and he and nobody else can stop me!" She then rips off her apron and throws it down on the stairs. She stomps down them furiously and to the bottom where she grabs her coat, puts, it on, and stomps outside. She decides to head straight home, hoping that maybe, just maybe, her daughter would be there, and she could spend one measly day with her. She crossed the street in rage and down a side street where she is determined to go home and not miss her chance, maybe her only chance to be home with her family.  
  
Cut to down town NNY  
  
Sara is carrying her books down the street, trying to mentally prepare herself for another day of torture. She is like her dad. She hates to learn. Then she is like her mother when she was a kid, street smart, and has no friends. Then she learned a little bit from Bender, when life gets you down you can tell the other kids to bite your shiny metal ass. Of course she's never tried that but if she were a robot it would work good. She's gonna save that one for the meanest, dumbest, kid in school, Butch Killerston, also known as Big Butch. She's had a couple of encounters with Butch, she barely escaped with her life. But she still has to come to school. The teachers say that they will keep an eye on her because they say she is a "special case". Sara doesn't consider herself a special case at all. The teacers are just scared of her because she's part mutant. But she doesn't let that bother her.  
  
She retraces her steps every morning and afternoon to and from their apartment, to the very same transport tube, to the very same place where she gets out of it, to the very same hover bus she takes every day, to the very same side street she goes down, to the very same school, to the very same home room, to the very same desk where she day dreams all day. Then she goes back home the same way using the same transportation.  
  
She trudges to the transport tube which is on the corner and steps inside. She says in a grumpy voice, "The alley next to Fishy Joe's, please." The tube sucks her into it and she talks to herself on the way. "I have absolutely no idea why this thing doesn't just have a way I can get to NNYMS just by going through it. Oh well, it's good to get a little excercise every day. Now dad? He's a different story." Sara goes though the rest of the tube without speaking a word.  
  
Cut to their apartment  
  
Fry is sitting on the couch watching the exciting conclusion of this week's Matlock 3005. The credits roll and Fry stands up and stretches. "Bah, that show isn't the same. I mean, come on, they have Harrison Ford's head playing the main character. Every time he walks they have to "secretly" tie a rope around his jar and hoist it up and around for him." Bender doesn't pay any attention to his friend. Instead he walks out of the kitchen and into the smaller half of the apartment where he doesn't need to hear his friend complain anymore.   
  
Fry hears music and immediately sits back down on the couch to watch two midgets wrestle Abe Lincoln's head. He points at the screen and laughs hysterically.   
  
Cut to the streets of NNY  
  
Leela is still stomping down the streets. She pushes an unlucky passer bye out of her way and into an open manhole. He screams and running can be heard in the sewers below. She at last reaches the street she lives on, with much doubt that her daughter is still home. She stops stomping and goes into a slow walk. She stops for a few hover cabs to pass bye and starts to walk across the street to get home. She walks into Robot Arms Apartments and takes an elevator up to their apartment. She figures it's better than taking the stairs.  
  
She walks down a long hallway until she finds their apartment. She knocks on the automatic door and Bender unlocks it from the inside. He lets her in and lets the door close before locking it again with his key that has a purple rabbit's foot tied to it.  
  
  
  
Cut to the Frys' living room  
  
  
  
Leela spies Fry lounging on the couch and goes over to join him. She sits down next to him and Fry puts his arm around her until he realizes who he's got his arm wrapped around and jumps in surprise. Leela and Fry stand up and Fry chokes out, "Leela, don't you have work today? If you don't go you could get fired, then what are we gonna do?" Leela puts a hand on Fry's shoulder and tries her best to lie to him. She doesn't want him to get all crazy.  
  
"It's ok, Fry,"She lies, "I won't get fired because my boss gave me the day off. He says that... Uh... That I've been working too hard... Yeah, that's it, I've been working too hard, and he thinks it's about time for me to have a day off." She holds her breath, waiting for her husband's reply.  
  
"Ok, that's a good thing, I guess." Fry says. Leela sighs in relief and they both sit back down to watch television.  
  
Cut to the outside of New New York Middle School (NNYMS)  
  
Sara is sitting on the curb outside school waiting for the final bell to ring. She is also waiting for Big Butch and his goons to be on their merry way off the school steps. But the three of them just sit there, most likely trying to find a way to beat up some helpless kid. If they picked on her today Sara's gonna do it, she is planning on telling Big Butch to bite her shiny metal ass. But she needs more time to sneak over to the school steps. Then she sees it, a hover board, just sitting there on the ground. Suddenly a plan formed in her head. She would use the hover board to fly over to the school and tell Butch and his goons off then she's gonna fly to safety. The plan is perfect all except for one, little, detail which Sara can't quite put her finger on. She decides to forget about it, it's probably nothing anyway.  
  
Sara Fry sneaks over to the hover board, jumps on it, and it starts to go. Then she remembers the one, little, detail, she has no idea how to fly a hover board.  
  
I HOPE YOU LIKED THAT PART! :) DON'T WORRY, IT'LL GET BETTER. 


	2. Part Two

PART TWO  
  
Cut to the skies of NNY  
  
A wave of fear washes over Sara as she tries her best to steer the board. She is inexperienced and she is too young for her liking to end up six feet under. She has no idea how to stop. This means she has to either run out of fuel and drop from the sky or try her best to land this thing before she gets herself killed. Succeeding in landing the board is her only safe option.  
  
She flies high up in the sky, too high for her. She drops her books and they fall to the ground. Someone screams. There's a lawsuit. But Sara has no time to help the person. Fear has overtaken her and she is standing still, almost frozen to the very same spot on the hover board. The thing she dreads the most happens.   
  
The hover board stops for a few moments and Sara heaves a sigh of relief. "That was close." She says, sitting down on the hover board. Only then does it drop from the sky. She clutches the sides screaming an ear splitting scream all the way down to the ground and into the open manhole that Leela pushed that other guy into. She lay there unconscience.   
  
Cut to the inside of the sewer  
  
Close up of the unconscience girl  
  
Shadows grow darker as somebody closes the man hole cover. An even darker shadow looms over Sara. It reaches out with two purple colored tentacles and picks the kid up. It runs off with her.   
  
Cut to an old cottage   
  
  
  
Blackness fades out and Sara awakens to find herself in an old cottage. She is lying on an old couch. Sara stands up and sees two mutants sitting on an arm chair in front of her. She shrieks and curls up in a ball on the couch. They are her grandparents, Leela's parents.   
  
Her grandmother hurries over to her and says in a soothing voice, "It's ok, We wanna help you." She puts a warm tentacle on Sara's back and continues, "What's your name?" Sara turns around and opens her closed eye.   
  
"Sara, "She says, "Sara Fry." The mutants gasp. Sara's grandmother rushes over to the girl's grandfather and the two start to whisper something Sara can't hear. She just sits there confused. She gathers up all her courage and asks, "Why did you guys kidnap me? If I don't go home my parents are gonna be worried sick about me. I'm not so sure about Bender but there's always a slim chance." There I go, She thinks, rambling on like my dad. Well, there's no time to complain now. I'm being held hostage by a bunch of mutants. Wait, I'm being held captive by my own race? I've heard of kidnappings but how did these guys get to the surface without being seen? I'd better keep quiet. I don't know what they're going to do to me.   
  
The mutants stare and the woman says, "We didn't kidnap you, we found you." That's exactly what Sara is expecting them to say. She stands up, slides over to a hole in the cottage's wall which is supposed to be a window, the mutants still keeping an eye on her, and jumps out of the window. She screams and the two race out of their house and after Sara.   
  
Down the streets of the mutants' society past hundreds of mutants, mutants with seven eyes to mutants with legs for a head. Sara doesn't seem to notice what kinds of heads the mutants have, she's just trying to escape the woman with the tentacles for arms and the man she's with.   
  
She comes across a huge toilet right in the middle of a town square. "No!" Sara yells without anyone seeming to notice. She comes to a complete stop right in the middle of everyone. "I'm not jumping into that super sized toilet and flushing myself down it!" She looks around. There are nothing around but dry cleaners, not very good places to hide out. Then the sound of someone running catches her attention. The two old mutants are still running after her. She turns around and starts to run and yells, "Okay, I'll jump in the toilet!" She runs up the platform which the toilet is sitting on and jumps in. With a quick EW! Sara pushes the handle and she starts to turn around and around and down and down. Her orange pigtail is the last thing that her grandparents can see get flushed down the toilet.  
  
"NO!" The two scream, "Not the sub-sewer!" 


End file.
